months before the birth of his son, he began business as a printer at the White Horse in Little Britain, and here he produced his first book, a neat small 4to, of 96 pp., 'A Defence of the Vindication of King Charles the Martyr justifying his Majesty's title to Εἰκὼν Βασιλική in answer to … Amyntor [i.e. John Toland],' Lond. 1699, 4to. Immediately after he removed to Dogwell Court, Whitefriars. In 1700 he was made liveryman of the Stationers' Company, and was chosen one of the twenty printers allowed by the Star-chamber. On 29 Jan. 1712-13 a fire destroyed his printing-office and dwelling, and one member of the family was burnt to death. Plant and stock were consumed; Atkyn's 'Gloucestershire,' Bishop Bull's 'Primitive Christianity,' L'Estrange's 'Josephus,' part of Thoresby's 4 Ducatus Leodiensis,' and many other works, with some valuable manuscripts, were lost. The estimated total loss was 5,146l., but this was more than half replaced by the produce of a king's brief granted 6 March 1713 for a charitable collection, the contributions of friends and a subscription of his own fraternity amounting to 2,539l. In remembrance of this kindness he had several tail-pieces and devices engraved, representing a phoenix rising from the flames, with suitable mottoes used afterwards in some of his best books. Continuing his business at the houses of friends, he at length returned to Whitefriars, October 1713, where he became the foremost printer of his day, until the fame of his learned son overshadowed his. The latter was taken into partnership in 1722, and his duty thenceforward was to correct the press, while his father up to his death retained the executive, the imprint of their works continuing to be 'Printed by William Bowyer.' The list, with copious notes, of all the works published by him is given in Nichols's 'Literary Anecdotes,' from 1697 to 1722, 230 pages, and of the joint works, 1722 to 1737, 370 pages.
Bowyer died 27 Dec. 1737, having survived his wife ten years, and was buried in the church of Low Leyton, Essex, in the south-west corner of which is an inscription to the memory of the Bowyer family generally. There is a marble monument erected by his son to his memory in the same church. In the stock room at Stationers' Hall there is a brass tablet, also by his son, commemorative of his loss by fire in 1712-13, and of the donations of the Stationers' Company and friends. By the side of it hangs a half-length portrait of Bowyer, which has been well described as that of 'a pleasant round-faced man' and 'a jolly good-looking man in a flowing wig.' An engraving of it by Basire Bowyer is the frontispiece of Nichols's first volume of 'Literary Anecdotes.'
In 1724 Bowyer was a nonjuror; we know nothing more of his religious views except a few traces, in his early life, recorded by Ord in the 'History of Cleveland,' where it is said that he had a controversy with a priest who defended the conduct of his sister, a professed nun of the order of Poor Clares, at Dunkirk. The letters commence October 1696, and end in June 1697, at the time when he was a journeyman printer at Daniel Sheldon's in Bartholomew Close. He seems to have been a very kind-hearted man, and ever ready to show kindness to others. He was the principal means of establishing the elder Caslon as a typefounder.
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. i. 1-485, ii. 1-116, iii. 272; Gent. Mag. xlviii. 409, 449, 513, lii. 348, 554, 582, liv. 893; Ord's Cleveland, p. 340; Bigmore and Wyman's Bibliog. of Printing, p. 75; Hansard's Typographia, p. 324; Wright's Essex, i. 496.]
BOWYER, WILLIAM, the younger (1699–1777), 'the learned printer,' only son of William Bowyer the elder [q.v.] and his second wife, Dorothy Dawks, was born at Dogwell Court, Whitefriars, London, on 19 Dec. 1699, a few months after his father had set up in business as a printer and issued his first book. Early in life he was placed under Ambrose Bonwicke the elder [q. v.], at Headley, near Leatherhead. Bowyer so won his master's affection, that when his father suffered in the great fire of 1712, he was gratuitously taught and boarded by Bonwicke for a year, without any intimation that it was the good divine's own deed. In June 1716 his father placed him as a sizar at St. John's, Cambridge, but seems to have dealt not very kindly in the matter of finances. Here he was under Dr. Christopher Anstey and Dr. Newcome, and in 1719 obtained Roper's exhibition, and wrote 'Epistola pro Sodalitio à rev. viro F. Roper mihi legato,' but did not take a B.A. degree. He was therefore not a candidate for a fellowship in 1719, as sometimes stated. In 1722 he was still at college without a degree, and about this time he began to help his father in correcting learned works for the press, Dr. Wilkins's great folio edition of Selden's works being the first, and for this he drew up an epitome 'De Synedriis veterum Ebræorum,' and memoranda of 'Privileges of the Baronage' and 'Judicature in Parliament.' His father took him into partnership towards the end of 1722, retaining the management of the business, and delegating the learned work to his son. In 1727 he wrote and published 'A View of a Book entitled Reliquiæ Baxterianæ' [see
